Editor's Note: This show will be broadcast live on OPB Plusas well as OPB Radio.
It's Friday, and so it's time for the news roundtable, our chance to review the big news of the week with a panel of journalists, editors and news watchers.
This week we are discussing:

The most high-profile ballot item in this week's special election is no doubt Portland's vote on fluoride, which has been garnering national attention.
But there are other important issues on ballots across the state. Lane, Josephine, and Curry counties are all considering tax hikes to increase funding for law enforcement. Residents of Clackamas County are voting on a measure that could complicate TriMet's Portland-Milwaukie light-rail line. And ten districts across the state are asking voters to increase school funding.

Update Feb. 2: The central committee's votes have been tallied and Suzanne Gallagher will become the new Oregon Republican Party chair.
The Oregon Republican Party will elect new officers, including a new party chair, at its biennial organizational meeting in Salem on Feb. 2. The new chair is expected to change the direction of the party in hopes of breaking a decade-long losing streak in statewide elections.
We parsed the candidate pool with political analyst Jim Moore on Think Out Loud Jan. 29.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray on Tuesday dropped his re-election bid for a second term after four men claimed he sexually abused them when they were teenagers, claims vehemently denied by Murray as an anti-gay political conspiracy aimed at derailing his campaign.